John Ferguson McLennan

McLennan, John Ferguson

Born Oct. 14, 1827, in Inverness; died June 16, 1881, in Hayes Common, Kent. Scottish ethnologist and historian of primitive society. One of the founders of the evolutionist school in ethnology.

McLennan’s chief works were devoted to the early history of marriage and the family. Convinced that all peoples underwent a uniform course of social evolution, McLennan was one of the first (after J. Bachofen) to postulate the priority of maternal over paternal kinship reckoning. He also called attention to the ancient marriage customs of abduction, polyandry, exogamy, and endogamy (the last two terms were introduced by McLennan). McLennan also gathered much information about totemism among many peoples of the world.

Drawing on nineteenth-century anthropologists such as John Ferguson McLennan, particularly the latter's theory of endogamy and exogamy, Michie shows how the heiress complicates the model of heterosexual exchange since she cannot enter into an exogamous marriage in which her wealth exits the group/family but must remain within an endogamous union.

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